1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image enhancement method, and more particularly to an image enhancement method for improving color perception of colorblind viewers. The image enhancement method helps and improves color observation of colorblind people.
2. Description of Related Art
Color identification disturbance, so-called color blindness, means that a person completely or partially lacks the ability to see color or perceive color difference. In other words, the person of colorblindness can only observe a limited visible color spectrum. The colorblindness is usually caused by the natural genetic factor, by damage of eyes, optic nerves or brain such as trauma and glaucoma, or by contact of chemical materials. A colorblind person's retinal cone has different responses to visible lights from both natural and digital images when compared to that of a person with normal vision. Colorblind people encounter limitation in certain social activities; for example, the colorblind people are forbidden to apply for driving licenses. Because of the defects on color perception, colorblind people, even having great interests, cannot undertake works or jobs in fields of art, medicine, chemical engineering, electrical engineering and telecommunication that need to massively implement color identification.
In the medical field, two treatments are employed to cure colorblind people. An acquired colorblind person can recover normal color perception as owned by a normal person after taking corresponding medicine or prescription by doctors. However, an inborn colorblind person cannot be cured by medicine or surgery. Some treatments are said to be capable of curing the inborn colorblindness, such as massage on acupuncture points and wearing glasses with specific coatings. Acupuncture point massage is futile to genetic factors and cannot be proved effective for curing inborn color blindness. Color correction by glasses works by the principle of blocking lights of specific wavelengths so that color difference is correctly presented in human brain. However, such color correction by glasses may be effective only for red-green color differentiation. In recent years, an improved treatment has been developed to treat colorblindness. The improved treatment sets specific colored light detectable opsin gene into a virus carrier, injects the virus carrier into the retina of a subject, and then adds missing gene to recover full color vision without modification of brain. However, such treatment is not proved safe yet.
Researches in engineering have developed the following methods for correcting colorblindness.
1. Color filters are used to filter colored light and produce color difference. Some color filters are designed to help colorblind car drivers to identify traffic lights.
2. Color differentiation algorithms are developed for enhancing colors that can be originally identified by colorblind users and producing color difference to colorblind users.
However, the aforementioned device and method are insufficient to improve the color vision of colorblind people.
To overcome the shortcomings, the present invention provides an image enhancement method for improving color perception of colorblind viewers to mitigate or obviate the aforementioned problems.